


lean on me (but let me laugh, first)

by ljbrary



Series: oh, to be young, wild, and a togruta [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Gets a Hug, Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano is a Sibling to the Clones, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Sleep Deprivation, Togrutas (Star Wars), Tooka Cats (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:35:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljbrary/pseuds/ljbrary
Summary: "Are you alright, Little'un?" He questioned cautiously, brows furrowing at her drooping eyelids and glassy gaze."Mmhmm," she mumbled back, and Rex was fairly sure she hadn't even heard him.On instinct, he gripped her shoulders to steady her as she swayed forward lethargically once more — but this time she didn't right herself; Rex did.:::(Who knew? The kid purrs.)[or Ahsoka is sleep deprived, and Rex and the others find out that a certain Togruta purrs in her sleep]
Relationships: 501st Legion & Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka Tano & Clone Troopers, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Hardcase & CT-7567 | Rex
Series: oh, to be young, wild, and a togruta [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2146389
Comments: 13
Kudos: 148





	lean on me (but let me laugh, first)

Ahsoka Tano looked beat.

The poor fourteen-year-old Padawan looked dead on her feet, and even just watching her made Rex want to collapse onto the nearest bench in exhaustion.

Fortunately for him, the 501st had just wrapped up a particularly grueling infantry assault on a Separatist base, and were cleared to head back to Coruscant for a well deserved rest — though Rex's faith that the small kid would even _make_ it to Coruscant on both feet was waning with each passing second they remained in wait of their ride back up to the cruiser.

They had broken base camp hours ago, and were, for the most part, spread out along the rocky terrain of the planet; sitting or standing in groups under temporary shelters that had been set up in air of the brewing storm rumbling among the atmosphere — it would be a while before atmospheric conditions allowed a transport to collect the troops, so until then they were to lie in anticipated wait for the gunships that would eventually shuttle them back up to the _Resolute_.

Slightly concerned, Rex glanced out of the corner of his eye upon witnessing the short Togruta swaying slightly before righting herself to a stiff posture, feigning an alertness that no one in their right mind would believe for a second. He watched as her eyelids drooped before snapping resolutely open once more, like her sheer force of will would be enough to fend off her impending exhaustion.

"Are you alright, Little'un?" He questioned cautiously, brows furrowing at her drooping eyelids and glassy gaze.

"Mmhmm," she mumbled back, and Rex was fairly sure she hadn't even heard him.

On instinct, he gripped her shoulders to steady her as she swayed forward lethargically once more — but this time she didn't right herself; Rex did.

"Woah, there, Kid..." he murmured under his breath, not really expecting Ahsoka to catch any of it.

"Sorry..." She slurred out, blinking sluggishly again as she tried to force her eyes to focus on something, even though they kept seeming to close against her will.

"Careful, Commander," he said again as she fell forward once more — straight into Rex's chest plate. "When's the last time you slept, Kid?"

Ahsoka didn't answer for a long five seconds. When she finally did speak, her voice was comically muffled by her proximity to Rex's plastoid armor. "Dunno... a while, _I_ think," — Rex snorted. _You think, Kid?_ — "When'd we get 'ere?"

Rex cringed slightly. They had luckily had a very short lived main assault from the east before trekking north to contest more territory, so he assumed _'here'_ meant when they had set up their base for the north opp around two days ago _at least._ She was clearly out of it — and the fact that she hadn't rested in at least two whole rotations didn't exactly bode well with him.

"Ah, kriff, Kid..." He muttered under his breath as her knees buckled and Rex had to catch her. It wasn't very hard — she had already been leaning heavily against the clone. Plus, she didn't exactly weigh very much; not to Rex, anyway.

Rex held her up as she tried to find her footing, one arm wrapped around her lower back, holding her waist to stabilize her, while the other gripped her upper arm trying to keep her from face-planting into the unforgiving rock below them. He looked awkwardly over the heads of resting troopers, trying to find her Master who was no where in sight at the moment.

 _We were not trained for_ this _on Kamino... What the kriff am I supposed to do now?_

The poor Togruta gripped his arm over his plastoid bracer, and pitifully forced her feet back underneath her. Although still leaning heavily on the clone captain, Rex had to admire her grit.

"I'm... I... Sor -sorry-y..."

Oh great, she couldn't even talk in complete sentences anymore... _where is Skywalker when you need him?_

"It's alright, Little'un," he murmured under his breath as she let out a small yawn, revealing her fangs before letting her head droop to the side against her shoulder, the tips of her montrals lightly touching Rex's armor.

"Kid," Rex began, having to catch her once more before she keeled over. "Maybe you should sit down..."

"'M f-fine..." She didn't even manage to pry open her eyes to say it, and Rex heard a scoff from next to him.

He turned; found Jesse with his fist over his mouth to stifle his laughter at the current shape of his COs. Hardcase wasn't much better, but he seemed to think it was more adorable than funny — though he couldn't quite fight the smirk off his face as the poor girl slumped forwards once more, knees buckling, and Rex was forced to tighten his grip on her to hold her up.

He shot a glare at his brothers before turning his attention back to his exhausted Commander.

"Alright, Commander," he said, still not completely sure if she could hear him or not. "I think it's time you got some rest."

She didn't protest -- though Rex was fairly sure it wasn't from her own volition, but rather because she _couldn't_.

He gently placed her on the hard ground, leaning her back up against a rock as her head lolled uselessly to one side and she didn't fight it.

He carefully tried to unclenched her fingers from around his forearm bracer, but found the little Togruta had an iron grip. Rex sighed and just let it be. He moved his position from crouched in front of her to leaning up against the rock right next to her as her grip remained tightly latched to his arm.

Rex sighed again. It had been a long day, and neither the pounding rain and thunder, nor the cold, windy air were making it much better.

He leaned his unhelmeted head back against the rock and closed his eyes. It would be nice to finally have some undisturbed peace —

He looked down as a sudden pressure on his upper arm shocked him out of his zoning out.

In her sleep, it seemed the Commander had slumped to the side, her horned head resting against Rex's upper arm, as she was too small to even reach his shoulder.

Rex felt his ears go red. They had never learned what to do about _this_ on Kamino. Then again, he guessed the Kaminoians had never imagined teaching clones what to do if a child -- an extremely _deadly_ child, no less -- decided to fall asleep on them. Rex certainly hadn't expected it.

A sudden mirth-filled laugh made his head turn.

"Cozy, Captain?" Jesse got out before trying to muffle his laughter once more, Hardcase right beside him.

"Aw, she's so peaceful when she sleeps." Hardcase crooned. "Makes you almost forget that she can gut you in five seconds flat."

Rex just scowled and shot a glare their way. "Oh, kriff off, would you?"

This only made them snort. Rex rolled his eyes and leaned his head back again, but once more his attention was snapped back to the small Togruta girl using him as a pillow.

For a few staggering seconds, he wondered if something was wrong — was the ground rumbling? But no...

There was an odd sound emitting from the back of her throat — not a growl, but a soft, rumbling humming that made his chest vibrate as he felt it against his arm.

Was she _purring?_

He didn't know she did that.

He was utterly confused, but he wondered if it was a Togruta thing.

He had heard her growl, or emit feral sounds from the back of her throat during battle, or in annoyance before — though it had never crossed his mind that she could _purr_.

Though, he shouldn't have been very surprised, in all honesty — she _did_ have fangs and could spot a stray battle droid from a mile away, so nothing about his Togrutan Commander should have surprised him by now.

But still, the low hum that was coming from her throat was pretty bizarre — especially since he could physically feel the vibrations running from his arm through his chest as she slept.

For all her feistiness and gargantuan attitude, she now looked so small and vulnerable in her sleep, purring like a tooka, that it made it almost comical to think that just hours ago she had been leading troopers in a war zone — though Rex knew she was anything but, and didn't want to voice it and end up on the receiving end of a lightsaber for admitting she looked 'small and vulnerable.'

"Is she _purring?"_

Rex turned his head, tearing his eyes away from the Commander to find Jesse, a mix of surprise and mirth alight in his features.

"I think so..." Rex admitted, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"She _purrs?_ " Hardcase murmured, glancing at the Togruta. "Huh. Didn't know." He looked amused, though also pleasantly surprised, like this just reinforced his opinion that their small Commander was adorable while asleep and not glaring at whoever told her she was. "Reminds me of a tooka," he added as an afterthought.

Rex shrugged as best he could without disturbing the sleeping girl. "Must be a Togruta thing, I guess. Never seen her do it before, though."

"Well, you haven't exactly seen her _sleeping_ before, either."

Rexs ears burned afresh. "Yeah, I guess I haven't," he managed through teeth gritted in annoyance at the amusement of his troopers.

"The boys back home are gonna _love_ this," Jesse cut in with a snort. "Our Commander _purrs_."

"You know she'd gut you alive for spreading that around the barracks, Jesse," Rex sighed, though there wasn't much he could do about it anymore — it was bound to get out one way or another.

Jesse ignored him. "And she fell asleep on _Rex —_ "

Rex shot him a glare as Hardcase cracked up beside him. "Alright, _boys_ ," he said warningly. "I think the sanitizers are looking a little out of sorts, don't you?"

Both clones immediately sobered up.

"Uh... No, Sir... I think they looked fine, last I saw them." Hardcase fumbled out, staring wide-eyed at the Captain, hands out in front of him in a placating gesture.

"Yes, Sir. I'd say they look fine." Jesse nodded vigorously, half-rising from his slumped position against a rock as if it would do more to prove his point.

"Well, then I guess your job of cleaning 'em just got a whole lot easier, wouldn't you say?" Rex raised his eyebrows, fighting to keep the twitch of his mouth concealed — though the prospect of that was getting harder and harder the longer he looked at the annoyed and defeated looks on the two clones diagonal from him.

"Yes, Sir." They both mumbled regretfully.

Rex snorted. "That's more like it, men."

Rex settled back against the rock, leaning his head back and trying to ignore that inevitable humming noise vibrating through his chest from the sleeping Togruta next to him.

If he really tried hard enough, he could almost imagine that the humming and vibrations were from the engine of a LAAT/i...

...

"Comfy, Rex?"

Rex snapped his head away from his rock pillow to find the General standing with his arms crossed in front of him, rain soaked from moving tent to tent in the storm.

"General Skywalker," he greeted, hesitating on whether or not to get up and stand at attention (and risk waking the Togruta), or just hope he wouldn't be demoted for staying put.

Skywalker's mouth twitched and he laughed. "At ease, boys."

The clones around the tent all fell back into their sitting positions as the General made his way deeper into their makeshift shelter.

Rex relaxed slowly. He felt a twinge of guilt that he hadn't been running checks and clean-up with the General, even if he was off-duty — but still, the funny vibrations were still warming his chest and so he settled back down again.

"I see Ahsoka's conked out," he said, his gaze softening slightly as he glanced at his sleeping student. Rex knew Anakin would never have admitted it, but the feisty Togruta seemed to be growing on him. "How'd you manage that?" He asked with a grin.

It wasn't exactly a secret how stubborn the Padawan was, and Rex could only guess that she had refused her Master's guidance to rest the past few days — though he assumed Skywalker was no better than the pint-sized Commander in that regard.

"I didn't do much, Sir," he told him truthfully. "She was beat. Finally keeled over."

Anakin snorted. "Typical. Won't rest until she passes out. We're gonna have to have a _talk_ once we get back to the cruiser on 'responsibility' versus 'overworking.'" He shook his head, fondly exasperated.

Rex had to refrain from a snort of his own. "Due respect, Sir," Rex said. "You're not exactly a 'rest easy' type either."

Anakin blinked, as if just coming to the realization that indeed he, too, had not slept in two days. Nevertheless he shrugged. "I know my limits." Then he frowned, narrowing his eyes slightly at his sleeping Padawan.

"Is she... _purring?_ "

Rex felt the corners of his mouth twitch. "Yes, Sir." He said as straightforward as he could, trying to keep the laugh out of his voice.

Anakin's dubious expression of surprise made it really hard for Rex to keep his poker face.

"I didn't know she _purred_ ," he said, incredulous.

This time Rex couldn't help the small, amused smile on his face. "Came as a shock to all of us, Sir."

Anakin let out a snort. " _I'll_ say. Huh, must be a Togruta thing."

"That's what we thought too, Sir." Rex agreed.

Anakin shook his head with a smirk. "Oh, she's _never_ living this down," he snorted again. "Snips _purrs._ Oh, _Force_ , that's rich."

Rex felt himself beginning to laugh as well, though he tried to stifle it as best he could, not wanting to wake the sleeping girl.

"Poor kid," said Rex, though his humorous tone gave the words no sympathy. "She won't ever hear the end of this once she wakes up."

Anakin gave another snort. "You got _that_ right," he said with a shake of his head. He sighed, "Anyway, I came to let you guys know that the storms letting up and the transports should be here t-minus one standard hour."

"Thank you, Sir," Rex said, relieved. He was teeming to get off that cold, damp rock as soon as possible. "That's good to hear."

Anakin nodded, his eyes still trained on Ahsoka, his gaze caring yet humorous, like he couldn't wait until she woke up just to tease her. Rex knew that as much reluctance as Anakin had expressed toward taking her on, he would have done it again in a heartbeat. He seemed to snap out of his tunnel vision, though, and looked up once more. "Good work, men. We pack up the shelters in forty minutes."

"Yes, Sir." Rex said. He hesitated, "Er... Should we wake the Commander, Sir?"

Anakin, who had moved his gaze away from Ahsoka to address the men, looked back down at her. He thought for a moment, then, "Nah, let her rest... Force knows when she'll let herself take a break again."

Rex nodded. "Very good, Sir."

And with one last smirk, he was gone.

...

Ahsoka bit back a yawn as she trudged up the path to the gunships beside Rex, right behind her Master.

She rubbed her eyes as she stumbled slightly, and felt a strong set of hands grip her shoulders to steady her as they kept walking.

"Careful there, Little'un." The familiar sound of Rex's voice, altered slightly through his vocoder, met her tired montrals.

"Thanks, Rexter." She yawned again. "Sorry."

Only five minutes before she had been shaken awake by the clone himself, and told to board a shuttle that would take them back to the _Resolute_.

Everything was blurring together for her -- all steady hands and trudging feet -- and the next thing she knew, she was standing tiredly next to her Master as the familiar rumble of the gunship rose into the air, whisking them away from that Force-forsaken rock.

Boy, was she happy to have her boots on something other than cold, damp gravel.

She sighed, her head drooping slightly as she hung onto the hand-holds that dropped down from the ceiling. Her arm was stretched way up to be able to reach the handle, but she was too tired to really care about the mild discomfort.

"So, Snips," her head shot up at the sound of her Master's voice — _I cant fall asleep now! My Master might need me —_ "I didn't know you purred."

Ahsoka started, suddenly more awake. _What in the world is he going on about now?_

"What?"

"In your sleep, Little'un." Rex told her gently — though she didn't miss the warble in his voice that meant he was close to laughter.

She blinked, eyes flying to Rex's dark visor and Jaig eyes as she felt the heat creeping up her lekku.

Anakin snorted and she heard Rex chuckle softly through his helmet.

"When were you gonna tell us, Kid?" Her head whipped to Jesse, who sounded like he was suppressing laughter as well — and doing a very poor job of it.

Her headtails flushed and her cheeks burned. She recoiled slightly, affronted. "I-I—" She faltered, looking pleadingly at her Master, but he just laughed.

 _I_ purr _in my sleep?_

Her headtails flushed vividly as laughter rang through her montrals.

She was wide awake _now_.

" _Master_!" She hissed out, wide-eyed and looking pleadingly at him, and his gaze softened, but the laughter in his eyes did not. He just chuckled and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

 _Great lot of reassurance_ that _does me._

She scowled, her face and headtails burning, and turned her gaze defiantly away from the onslaught of chuckles and snorts coming from the clones and her Master around her.

Oh, she was _definitely_ wide awake _now_.

**Author's Note:**

> hi :) sorry for any mistakes but a certain teenager is also sleep deprived and doesn't have the motivation to read through it again (i swear it gets worse every time i edit)
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed a bit of season 1 baby soka :)


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